Dublin man sentenced for arson after manslaughter conviction quashed

By Eimear Dodd

A Dublin man has been re-sentenced to six years in prison for arson after his conviction for manslaughter was quashed by the Court of Appeal.

Dean Boland (37) was sentenced to eight years in prison in March 2023 after he was convicted of the unlawful killing of Ohari Viera in August 2018.

Boland had broken into a downstairs apartment of a Dublin residential property where Mr Viera was living, stole a rucksack and set fire to the property.

Mr Viera had been living in an upstairs apartment with two other men, and all three managed to evacuate the building safely as soon as they became aware of the fire downstairs.

The men were waiting outside the property when Mr Viera went back into the house for an unknown reason.

He never returned and others who tried to go into the property after him were prevented in doing as the building became engulfed in smoke and flames.

Boland of Northwood, Santry was convicted by jury trial of the unlawful killing of Mr Viera, damaging property by arson and burglary at Oaklands Terrace, Terenure, on August 21, 2018 by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury.

In October, the Court of Appeal quashed Boland’s conviction for manslaughter and returned the case to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for sentencing on the counts of arson and burglary.

In a written judgement delivered by Ms Justice Tara Burns, the Court of Appeal found that “while the deceased would not have died but for the fire which was started by” Boland, “the ill-judged step of returning to the fire broke the chain of causation”.

Ms Justice Burns said this was an “independent and voluntary act” which was “not the natural consequence of the arson offence which the deceased already had safely escaped from”.

 “The act of the accused starting the fire was the setting in which the deceased lost his life but was not the legal cause for the death,” the ruling stated.

Judge Elma Sheahan imposed a six-year sentence on Boland on the count of arson. She backdated the sentence to December 16, 2022 when Boland was convicted.  The judge said she would take the burglary charge into consideration.

Boland has 32 previous convictions including assault and attempted robbery.

Judge Sheahan noted the court was told when it imposed sentence on the manslaughter charge that Boland did not accept the verdict of the jury, but he now accepts the guilty verdicts in relation to the arson and burglary charges.

She said this was “serious offending” as Boland set a fire in a residential building.

She said it would have been “impossible to know” what harm the fire might cause, that residents were “put in danger” and the potential for death and serious injury due to the fire was “significant”.

She said the court was “conscious of the factual background” to the case, that Mr Viera’s death was “part of the factual matrix” though Boland was “not legally responsible” for this.

The judge said she had considered the mitigation, including Boland’s personal circumstances and that he has engaged with psychological supports while in custody.

Mr Viera’s daughter was in the court for the hearing. The judge said she had reviewed the victim impact statement and noted the dignity shown by Ms Viera throughout the criminal process.

At the sentence hearing in  March 2023, Judge Sheahan noted that Boland had a longstanding drug addiction and was homeless at the time. He was intoxicated when he started the fire but remained at the scene.

In a victim impact statement read during this hearing, Ms Tatiana Viera said she “has some sympathy” for Boland and spoke of how he had no one in court to support him during the trial.

She said her father was a brother, an uncle, a father and a grandfather.

She spoke of being escorted to the hospital when her father was taken there and said she was “traumatised when the machine was switched off the next day”.

It was the State’s case during the trial that Boland had broken into a downstairs apartment of the house where Mr Viera was living, stole a rucksack and set fire to the property.

The investigation never established what started the fire, but a forensic examiner concluded that it was “a consequence of a deliberate act”.

Officers from the Dublin Fire Service found Mr Viera in an upstairs room and he was taken by ambulance to St James’ Hospital.

A pathologist determined his cause of death to be cardiac arrest following the inhalation of smoke and other fire gases.

In her victim impact statement, Ms Viera said she came to Ireland with her father, who was originally from Angola, as a child.

She said he had “a complicated journey” which “ended sadly with his death”.